Understanding of Leadership Concept

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that in 'Understanding Leadership', Gayle Avery attempts to create a concise understanding of the often confusing concept of leadership through a progression of leadership issues and then a collection of case studies that apply leadership in different contexts. The writer points out that the base of the work attempts to effectively answer some long-standing questions about the nature of leadership and its study and in doing so demonstrates a breadth and depth of knowledge about the field. The writer notes that Avery begins by discussing the variations and conflicts that have occurred over the years with regard to leadership study and then supplies the reader with a template of paradigms to help discover the varied leadership research levels. The writer concludes that this work provides an overall view of leadership studies and applications and the case study emphasis is an essentially pertinent style of better understanding leadership in context.

From the Paper:

"The work does have a historical basis but does tend to give the impression that a huge period of time between antiquity and the 1970s was a blanket and rather antiquated period, and most historians would likely think this exceedingly simplified and misleading. The idea that each of these paradigms is honestly discrete is problematic, even in the case studies that close the work, as through time it can be said that leadership understanding, style and expectations have evolved from power based hierarchical systems to more organic egalitarian standards but this emphasis of evolution seems oversimplified to say the least as it would likely be clear that if one was looking at older models there would be variation that looks very much mike more modern patterns of leadership, and in fact some imply that more successful models of leadership employed even organic paradigm standards far before their time.
"One message that Avery stresses in her work is that the research base for leadership study has been broken down into areas of study that made it more measurable and repeatable, which she explains makes the field seem to simplified to reflect the diversity and complexity which actually exists in the real world of leadership."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Avery, G. C. (2004) Understanding Leadership, New York: Sage Publications.

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